FBI director admits ‘unconscious racial biases’ exist among cops

The FBI denies any epidemic of racism among American law enforcement, but admits to cynicism and unconscious bias by the nation’s cops.

FBI Director James Comey
made the remarks Thursday at Georgetown
University in Washington, DC, at a discussion about “the
relationship between law enforcement and the diverse communities
we serve.”

Singling out the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri
and Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York — as well as the
December 2014 murder of two NYPD officers amid growing anti-cop
sentiment — Comey said the rift between minority communities and
officers of the law cannot be ignored any longer.

“We can drive around these problems,” he said. “Or
we can choose to have an open and honest discussion about what
our relationship is today.”

Comey, though, also blamed “the widespread existence of
unconscious bias. Many people in our white-majority culture have
unconscious racial biases and react differently to a white face
than a black face.”

He quoted “Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist” from the Broadway
musical “Avenue Q” quipping, “You should be grateful I did
not sing that.”

Defending police, Comey denied endemic racial bias in law
enforcement officers, insisting the corps is comprised of
well-intentioned "people who risk their lives because they
want to help other people.”

Cynicism in the force is real, he admitted, manifest in "lazy
mental shortcuts."

“For example, criminal suspects routinely lie about their
guilt, and the people we charge are overwhelmingly guilty. That
makes it easy for folks in law enforcement to assume that
everybody is lying and that no suspect, regardless of their race,
could be innocent. Easy, but wrong.”

This week’s remarks by Comey — a white member of the Republican
Party nominated to head the FBI by Pres. Obama — come on the
heels of similar discussions of race and policing by Obama and
his attorney general, Eric Holder, who are both black.

A wave of protests have hit the US in recent months following the
deaths of Brown and Garner last July and August, respectively,
and similar incidents that have unfolded since concerning the use
of excessive force by law enforcement officials on black
suspects.